Intent-Driven Retargeting: Driving High-Impact Campaigns with First-Party Intent Signals

Introduction

Leveraging prospect intent can be your ticket to progressing prospects through the buying journey. This guide shows you how to use Sona's first-party intent signals to create high-impact retargeting campaigns across multiple channels to advance prospects and accelerate your sales pipeline. By the end, you'll have the knowledge and tools to transform your retargeting strategy, engaging prospects with personalized messaging throughout their buying journey and significantly boosting your sales pipeline.

What You'll Learn

• The power of first-party intent signals in driving high-impact retargeting campaigns
• How to set up and utilize intent signals in the Sona Platform
• Techniques for creating laser-focused audience segments based on intent data
• Strategies for implementing multi-channel, intent-driven retargeting campaigns
• Methods to personalize outreach for maximum impact and conversion

Understanding First-Party Intent Signals

The Foundation of Intent-Driven Retargeting

First-party intent signals are valuable data points that provide deep insights into a prospect's interests, level of engagement, and position in the buying journey. These signals are derived from interactions with your website and digital assets, making them highly reliable and actionable.

Sona's platform allows you to capture and leverage intent signals based on various factors:

• URL paths visited
• Time spent on specific pages
• Referral sources
• Form submissions and interactions

By harnessing these signals, you can:

1. Identify prospects demonstrating active interest in your offerings
2. Gauge the intensity of interest in specific products or services
3. Determine the optimal timing for personalized outreach
4. Tailor your messaging to align with the prospect's current stage in the buying journey

Implementing Intent-Driven Retargeting with Sona

Let's dive into a step-by-step process for creating high-impact, intent-driven retargeting campaigns using Sona:

Step 1: Create Powerful Intent Signals

• Define key actions that indicate strong buying intent (e.g., visiting pricing pages, downloading whitepapers)
• Set up custom intent signals in Sona based on these actions
• Configure signal triggers using URL paths, session duration, and other relevant parameters

• Ensure both individual visitors and associated accounts are labeled with the appropriate intent signals

Step 2: Build Targeted Audience Segments

• Use Sona's filtering capabilities to target prospects exhibiting specific intent signals

• Combine intent data with other criteria to match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
• Identify high-value prospects already in your CRM for special attention
• Create dynamic audience segments that update automatically as new data comes in

Step 3: Design Intent-Driven, Multi-Channel Campaigns

• Craft personalized messaging that directly addresses the intent signals triggered
• Develop a multi-channel strategy leveraging email, social media, display ads, and other relevant platforms
• Tailor content and offers to match the prospect's demonstrated interests and engagement level
• Set up automated workflows to ensure timely outreach based on intent signals

Step 4: Implement Cross-Platform Integration

• Utilize Sona's Connectors to set up integrations with your marketing stack

• Create Destinations to automatically sync your intent-based audience segments with other platforms

• Ensure seamless data flow between Sona and your chosen marketing automation tools
• Configure real-time updates to keep your campaigns aligned with the latest intent data

After adding a Connector, click Destinations from the main menu, then click the “+” sign in the Destinations page.

Select a destination platform, then select the audience report you want to sync and the target account. You can sync one audience to multiple platforms if you want to employ a multi-channel strategy.

Step 5: Launch, Monitor, and Optimize

• Activate your intent-driven retargeting campaigns across all chosen channels
• Closely monitor campaign performance, paying special attention to how different intent signals correlate with conversion rates
• A/B test various messaging and offers to determine what resonates best with each intent-based segment
• Continuously refine your intent signals and audience segments based on performance data

Best Practices for High-Impact, Intent-Driven Retargeting

1. Precision Targeting: Use a combination of intent signals to create highly specific audience segments for maximum relevance
2. Timeliness is Key: Act quickly on strong intent signals to engage prospects when their interest is at its peak
3. Content Alignment: Create and share content that directly addresses the interests indicated by specific intent signals
4. Cross-Channel Consistency: Ensure your messaging is cohesive across all channels while tailoring to each platform's strengths
5. Respect Privacy: Always adhere to data protection regulations and provide clear opt-out options in your retargeting efforts

Overcoming Common Challenges

• Signal Overload: Start with a few high-impact intent signals and gradually expand as you become more proficient
• Campaign Fatigue: Implement frequency caps and vary your messaging to prevent audience burnout
• Debunk Attribution: Utilize Sona's comprehensive data to accurately credit conversions across multiple touchpoints

Conclusion

Intent-driven retargeting represents the future of digital marketing, allowing you to create highly personalized, timely, and relevant campaigns that resonate with your prospects. By leveraging Sona's powerful first-party intent signals, you can dramatically increase the impact of your retargeting efforts, leading to higher engagement, improved conversion rates, and accelerated pipeline growth.

Glossary

• First-Party Intent Signals: Data points derived from direct interactions with your digital properties, indicating a prospect's interests and engagement level
• Intent-Driven Retargeting: A strategy that uses intent signals to create highly targeted and relevant remarketing campaigns
• Multi-Channel Campaigns: Marketing efforts that utilize multiple platforms to reach and engage prospects based on their intent signals
• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): A detailed description of your perfect customer, used to guide targeting and personalization efforts
• Dynamic Audience Segments: Groups of prospects that automatically update based on real-time intent data and predefined criteria
• Attribution: The process of determining which marketing touchpoints contribute to conversions in a multi-channel campaign